The chassis number

The chassis number is the one number to protect. Everything else on the car can be replaced without changing what the car is. The chassis number is what ties the object in front of you to a line in the Browns Lane ledgers.

How the ranges work

Jaguar did not number every E-Type in one continuous run. Right-hand and left-hand drive cars, and open and fixed head cars, were allocated separate ranges, and the prefix changed as the model changed. That is why a number alone can tell you a good deal: the range says which series, which body style and which side the steering wheel was on, and the position within the range says roughly when in the run the car was built.

This archive does not reproduce the full range tables. The Heritage Trust and xkedata.com maintain them, correct them as records are re-read, and hold far more detail than a summary could. Reproducing a snapshot here would only freeze it. Use the tables at source and use this page for the grammar.

Prefixes and suffixes

Letters around the number record factory fitments rather than sequence. Published summaries of the Heritage Trust records note DN for overdrive and BW for a Borg Warner automatic, the latter appearing on Series 1 4.2 litre cars, on the Series 2 2+2 and on all Series 3 cars. A P prefix denotes power steering, and it is absent from Series 3 numbers because power steering was standard by then.

Those letters describe the car as built. A BW suffix on a car that is now manual is not a fault in the number, it is a fact about the car's history, and it should have an explanation attached to it.

What a chassis number cannot do

• It cannot give an exact build date. Cars were not always despatched in strict sequence, and tables give windows rather than days.
• It cannot confirm original colour, trim or options. That is what the factory record behind a Heritage Certificate is for.
• It cannot prove the car is what it appears to be. Stampings can be altered, so read the number, then check that the car agrees with it.

Checking a number in practice

Find the stamping on the car and the plate in the engine bay, and confirm they agree with each other and with the registration document. Look the number up against the published ranges to confirm the series and body style match the description. Where the visible features of the car disagree with the number, the series identification page sets out what each series should look like, and the disagreement is the thing to resolve before anything else.